WIP : Hobbyboss 1/72 F-14B Tomcat Pt.1

The next project is a new kit instead of finishing a shelf queen. My friend said that this kit was quite straightforward compared to the Hasegawa. Let’s see shall we?

First impressions are good so far. The panel lines aren’t as fine as Hasegawa’s but aren’t as deep as the Revell’s. Shape looks alright too. Best of all, unlike Hasegawa, Hobbyboss went the route of remolding whole pieces for the various F-14 versions instead of changing a small panel here and there which should make for less fiddly fitting.

Anyway first up is a quick wash with soap as the kit is covered with a coat of mold release. I then assembled the ejection seats. It wasn’t surprising that there are no molded-on seat belts but disappointingly, the very prominent ejection handles on the headrests are missing. In addition, the back cushion also looks off but I’m not too concerned with it.

I decided to do something about the missing ejection handles. I remember reading about a simple method of scratchbuilding the handles by using some wire and a custom jig from Andy Mullen’s site (since offline). The custom jig is made of 2 straight sections cut from a straightened paperclip that were hammered into a wooden base. Then it’s a simple matter of threading a brass rod (mine is a Wave Option System C-Line 0.5mm) through the jig and adjusting to taste with pliers. The handles look slightly oversized to my eye but barring finding a thinner wire, I think I’ll go with these. After some more adjustments, they should look fine behind a coat of paint and under the canopy.

This was actually a 2nd attempt at it. I initially used nails for the jig and craft wire for the ejection handles but the result looked more appropriate for a 1/48 scale seat (the silver handles in the below pic).

Since this is an F-14B, the gun vents are the correct NACA version. Also of note here is that the nose gear doors are molded on! Excellent for those who want to model this kit with the gear down, but pretty much a non-starter for folks who want to build this in-flight. The ECM blister on the gear door is also correct for the F-14B.

Most impressive is Hobbyboss molded the reinforcement plate surrounding the co-pilot’s step which is a feature on the F-14B.

The wings are designed to swing in and out which I don’t care much for since I prefer how the F-14 looks with wings swept anyway. I think I’ll need to figure out a way to modify the wings so that I can attach after painting though.

I then decided to do a quick dry fit to see how well the kit comes together: so far so good! More importantly, looks a lot like an F-14 Tomcat to me!

In the 1990s, the F-14 was adapted to drop bombs and the starboard weapons pylon was modified to have a LANTIRN pod mounted for precision strike. The kit includes the LANTIRN-specific vertical pylon but doesn’t come with the LANTIRN pod itself and the attachment rail for the pod. I got a LANTIRN pod and pylon from the Hasegawa Weapons Set VII. The Hasegawa pylon fits about 5mm longer than the shoulder pylon but I don’t think it’s a deal breaker.

Hobbyboss also includes some nicely done LAU-138 BOL missile rails which is accurate for the F-14 in the 1990s onwards.

Another detail that Hobbyboss missed are the bomb racks on the underbelly missile palettes. I also got these from the Hasegawa Weapons Set VI. I’m going ahead with only the 2 forward ones mounted with 2 GBU-12s, which is one of the more common configurations for the F-14B in the 2000s.

Hobbyboss has molded identical looking fuel tanks which have center aligned pylons. The pylons are supposed to be offset to one side. It’s a hassle to try to correct and since they aren’t obvious when mounted, I left them as is.

So most of the major components have been dealt with, next comes proper assembly.